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Democrats meddling in GOP race, Whitman campaign says

By Steven Harmon and Ken McLaughlinStaff Writers

Posted:
02/16/2010 04:07:01 PM PST

Updated:
02/17/2010 06:42:41 AM PST

SACRAMENTO -- In its first on-air foray -- a 30-second radio ad attacking Meg Whitman -- an independent Democratic group is being accused of meddling in the Republican gubernatorial primary and favoring Whitman's GOP opponent Steve Poizner.

The group, Level The Playing Field 2010, released the radio ad Tuesday that directly attacks Whitman for planning to spend her personal fortune to win the governorship.

"She's threatening to spend one hundred and fifty million dollars to crown herself governor," a woman's voice intones.

The ad, and where it was placed -- stations that cater to conservative listeners -- convinced Whitman's campaign that Brown's supporters are trying to pick sides in the GOP primary.

"Clearly, there is a focus on Republicans as they purchased stations with the following programming: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and Glenn Beck," said an analysis by Whitman consultant Kyle Roberts, of Smart Media Group. "Any savvy media observer would conclude this campaign is designed to target and persuade Republicans during their primary election."

Level The Playing Field 2010 is one of three independent groups that have pledged to raise upward of $40 million to help counter Whitman's message -- which until now has been unanswered on the airwaves. Groups independent of campaigns can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, but cannot coordinate their activities with those of the candidates.

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The group's name itself, Level The Playing Field, addresses what Democrats fear most: that Whitman's seemingly bottomless pit of personal resources will overwhelm anything Brown can muster. On the verge of making his candidacy official, Brown has raised $12 million so far.

"Looking at the polls, it makes sense that she's the target," said one Democratic insider. "There's a fear in light of the Massachusetts election that if people wait until it's too late to launch big hits, you run the risk of somebody building up momentum that when you get in the battle, it's too late."

Whitman has already raised more than $39 million and spent $19 million, while Poizner, the state's insurance commissioner, continues to husband his own resources. He has poured $19.2 million of his own money into his campaign, but has yet to go on air.

Whitman, Democrats say, has a couple weak spots they want to go after: her association, as ex-CEO of eBay, with the corporate culture, and what many are calling her insulated approach to the campaign. She has been criticized for refusing to debate Poizner or meet with the political press corps to answer tough questions.

"She's approaching this race as if the votes are already counted, which is ironic given the fact she didn't ever vote until she was 46," said Level the Playing Field committee spokesman Chris Lehane, a former Clinton/Gore political strategist. "We're going to try to fill in a narrative. This is a person who in her career time and time again made decisions that put profits before the public's interests."

Political analysts say the new anti-Whitman ads are bound to boost her unfavorable ratings.

Democrats and labor groups "don't want her to be seen as the nice lady on TV,'' said John Pitney, a government and politics professor at Claremont McKenna College. "They want her to be seen instead as Snidely Whiplash. They want to paint a mustache on her in India ink so she can't get it off.''

The Whitman campaign on Tuesday began to vigorously defend itself in the face of increasing criticism that the billionaire candidate is trying to buy the governor's seat by spending $150 million of her own money.

"For a year now, Meg has been on the campaign trail talking about her agenda to create jobs, cut spending and fix education; and Jerry Brown has been nowhere,'' said Sarah Pompei, Whitman's spokeswoman. "While Meg has been attending county fairs, touring businesses and holding rallies, Jerry Brown has been trying to laugh-off having a real conversation with voters."

Targeting Whitman doesn't mean Democrats support Poizner over her, said Roger Salazar, a member of the leadership team for a second independent group, California Working Families 2010.

"No one prefers anybody; it's a question of balance," Salazar said. "Whitman's campaign is worried they have a glass candidate. They've already insulated her from the press, kept her from public appearances, trying to run this campaign on her own terms by going strictly on air. They're worried that anything we say that counters her message will knock her over."

A Rasmussen poll released Tuesday showed Whitman dead-even with Brown -- at 43 percent each. Before Whitman started her nonstop radio ad campaign in late September, polls showed her down about 20 percentage points, though the numbers have not moved since November.

According to the poll of 500 likely California voters, Brown continues to maintain a double-digit lead -- 46 percent to 34 percent -- over Poizner.

The radio ad campaign began two days after the Sacramento Bee's Dan Walters, considered the dean of the Capitol press corps, asserted in his column that Whitman was living in a "cocoon'' and dodging tough questions from California political reporters by giving interviews mostly to friendly TV and radio reporters.

Tucker Bounds, Whitman's communication's director, said Tuesday that a "cursory review'' showed that Brown has done fewer than 10 interviews while Whitman has done more than 170 media interviews since she declared her intention to run a year ago.

Still, he acknowledged that the campaign's media strategy has often excluded print reporters.

"The simple truth is this: California voters watch their local TV news a lot more than they read their local newspaper, and as a result, Meg Whitman has been interviewing with local newscasts at virtually every stop along the campaign trail,'' he said.